Barcelona’s fiasco in Europe: 8 years of shame, from Champions League turnovers to Europa League

Barcelona and the European Cups have been quite the amusement for rival fans in recent years. The Catalans have long been a favourite in Europe that other teams fear. And the torment has been going on for 8 years.

Barcelona last won the Champions League in 2015, when the Messi-Suárez-Neymar trio were reeling. But since then, the European success tap has stopped at Camp Nou. And drastically so.

The Catalans have slowly come no closer to success in Europe, they’ve only been to the Champions League semi-finals once since and it’s been a historic embarrassment at Anfield. But what would Barcelona give to be out of the Champions League play-offs, for the second year in a row they are out of the Europa League.

It’s been eight years since Barcelona struggled in Europe. Recall all the Blaugranas’ eliminations.

2015/16 – Quarter-finals – Collapse with Atlético

In the season when Barcelona defended their trophy, they were big favourites. They met Atlético Madrid in the quarter-finals and although they were 0-1 down, Fernando Torres saw a red card in the 35th minute and the Blaugranas played a long powerplay. Luis Suárez took advantage with two goals and Barcelona won 2:1 and were in a good position for the rematch.

In a thunderous rematch at the Vicente Calderon, Barcelona flattered the home stands, let in two goals from Antoine Griezmann and were eliminated.

2016/17 – Quarter-finals – Washout with Juventus

Barcelona were already on the ropes in the semi-final, first losing 0:4 to PSG, but heroically turning it around in the rematch to 6:5. But in the quarter-final they went to Juventus and got a big slap in the face.

After a very poor performance, they lost 0:3, and could have scored even more goals. Juventus were clearly the better team then. A 0:0 home draw didn’t change anything.

2017/18 – Quarter-final – Disgrace to AS Roma

In the first leg, Barcelona won safely 4: 1 after goals from Piqué, Suárez and own goals from Manolas and De Rossi and it seemed that they had already got promotion in the bag and the rematch looked like it was going to go accordingly.

But that didn’t pay off handsomely for the Catalans. Džeko sent AS into the lead at the Stadio Olimpico, De Rossi added a second goal in the 58th minute and suddenly Barcelona were on the brink. Kostas Manolas’ unforgettable header in the 82nd minute put the Catalans to further shame.

2018/19 – Semi-final – Liverpool fiasco

After four years, Barcelona reached the semi-finals and were one step away from the final when they overcame Liverpool 3-0 in the first leg.

But Barcelona, just like a year ago with AS, underestimated the rematch. Already in the seventh minute Divock Origi opened the scoring for the Catalans, Georginio Wijnaldum then added two goals in the second half within two minutes to equalise. Barcelona’s completely disorganised and disastrous defence was finished off by Trent Alexander Arnold with his “corner taken quickly” and a second goal from Origi.

2019/20 – Quarter-finals – colossal drubbing by Bayern

The 2019/20 season was specific in that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was played in the summer and the knockout phase was played on neutral ground for only one match. Barcelona can actually be glad for that, because after the drubbing with Bayern, they might not even want to play a rematch.

The Bavarian side saw off Messi and co. 8:2, with only Suárez and an own goal by Alaba scoring for Barcelona.

2020/21 – Eight-finals – another nail-biter with PSG

Against PSG at Camp Nou, Messi sent Barcelona into the lead from a penalty, but Kylian Mbappé then turned the score around with a hat-trick and it was 4: 1 after another Moise Keane goal.

Mbappé opened the scoring in the return leg, then Messi equalised and could have made the game even more dramatic, but he gave away a penalty before half-time. The match ended 5-1 to PSG and Barcelona had to say goodbye in the eighth round.

2021/22 – LM group – EL quarter-finals

If being knocked out of the LM eighth round was already a disgrace for Barcelona, what would they give for it in the next edition. That’s because it already crashed out in the regular group, where it finished only third behind Bayern and Benfica.

So it set a goal to at least win the Europa League, but even that didn’t happen. It still advanced past Napoli and Galatasaray, but was stopped in the quarter-finals by Eintracht Frankfurt.

After an opening 1-1 draw in the return leg at Camp Nou, Frankfurt were already 3-0 up. Barcelona at least reduced it to 2: 3, but that was as far as they could go. Even more shameful than the EL quarter-final exit, however, was the fact that Barcelona’s socios sold their tickets en masse to Frankfurt fans, who numbered over 30,000 at Camp Nou, creating a white hell.

2022/23 – LM regular group – 1/16 EL final

With the thought of last year’s ignominious elimination already in the Champions League’s regular group, Barcelona didn’t want a repeat of that nightmare. But it still managed to do it. They finished third in a group with Bayern, Inter and Plzen and had to settle for the Europa League.

But it didn’t stay there for long. In the 1/16 finals, they came up against Manchester United, losing 1:2 at Old Trafford after a 2:2 home draw. Eight years later, they have not even reached the eighth round of any competition.

Source: UEFA, Barcelona